Atheist countries no better than Theocracies

[mediumaevum]

http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/new ... |newslist1

How are Atheist countries any better than religious fundamentalist countries oppressing minorities and performing public executions?

Seems like we can't blame religion. We must blame Authoritarianism itself, not religion.

The Wonsan victims were mostly charged with watching or illegally trafficking South Korean videos, being involved in prostitution or being in possession of a Bible.

Sounds like something a Theocracy like Iran could have done.
Or Saudi Arabia.

But this is Atheist Korea!

[Plu]

Duplicate topic

[mediumaevum]

Duplicate topic

Sorry. I'll leave it then. Thanks.

[Hijiri Byakuren]

Atheist? North Koreans are taught to worship their leaders as gods. Doesn't sound very atheistic to me.

[Poison Tree]

How many countries is North Korea?

[leo]

Atheist? North Koreans are taught to worship their leaders as gods. Doesn't sound very atheistic to me.

^^this.

[mediumaevum]

Atheist? North Koreans are taught to worship their leaders as gods. Doesn't sound very atheistic to me.

Though that is the popular belief, as told in the media, it is not entirely true.

North Koreans do indeed worship their leader, but not as a divine being in the religious sense.
Kim-il-Sung, who formed North Korea, is worshipped like a deity, but it is just that: LIKE a deity!

When North Koreans say their leader "still lives" they are refering to the common memory of his "glorious" work.

North Koreans are not religious. They don't believe in the afterlife. What they do believe in is Communism combined with the Juche-ideology, which is basically merchantilism (the reason they are starving, is because of Juche-ideology that prohibits imports and emphasize exports, not Communism).

[Mister Agenda]

Not a divine being? Right.  :roll:

In N. Korea, it's said that Kim Jong Il was born on a sacred mountain top (he was actually born in Russia) as prophesied by a swallow, his birth caused winter to change to spring and heralded a new star in the heavens. He was walking at three weeks old and talking by eight weeks, according to official records. He reportedly spread the myth that his moods could affect the weather. Just before he died, the skies glowed red above sacred Mount Paektu and the ice sheet at the heart of the volcano cracked with a deafening roar (according to the Korean Central News Agency).

[Hijiri Byakuren]

Atheist? North Koreans are taught to worship their leaders as gods. Doesn't sound very atheistic to me.

Though that is the popular belief, as told in the media, it is not entirely true.

North Koreans do indeed worship their leader, but not as a divine being in the religious sense.
Kim-il-Sung, who formed North Korea, is worshipped like a deity, but it is just that: LIKE a deity!

Which is to say, they believe he is a deity.

You're trying to define their worship as something other than what it is, and it's not working.

[Jmpty]

Any other examples? North Korea is an anomaly, at best.

[Aroura33]

Every time someone says N. Korea is an atheist country, I know they  have not bothered to do their research. They do indeed worship him asca deity. When good thing happen they give him thanks, when bad thing happen they pray for his light and guidance. It is not only religous, it is the essence of a hardcore fundamental theocracy.

[Solitary]

This is the reason Christians think atheism is a religion because they confuse individual beliefs with politically motivated collective beliefs like religion that just happen to not include their God. It's also not logical because it is a comparing apples to oranges fallacy. Just because a government is atheistic doesn't mean the horrible things it does is in the name of atheism like religion does in the name of God.  :roll:  Solitary

The Role of Religion

Country name:
conventional long form: Democratic People's Republic of Korea
conventional short form: North Korea
local long form: Choson-minjujuui-inmin-konghwaguk
local short form: none
note: the North Koreans generally use the term "Choson" to refer to their country
abbreviation: DPRK
Background:
At the end of World War II, the US and the Soviet Union agreed that US troops would accept the surrender of Japanese forces south of the 38th parallel and the Soviet Union would do so in the north. In 1948, the UN proposed nationwide elections; after P'yongyang's refusal to allow UN inspectors in the north, elections were held in the south and the Republic of Korea was established. The Democratic People's Republic of Korea was established the following month in the north.
 Communist North Korean forces invaded South Korea in 1950. US and other UN forces intervened to defend the South and Chinese forces intervened on behalf of the North. After a bitter three-year war, an armistice was signed in 1953, establishing a military demarcation line near the 38th parallel. The North's heavy investment in military forces has produced an army of 1 million troops equipped with thousands of tanks and artillery pieces. Despite growing economic hardships, North Korea continues to devote a significant portion of its scarce resources to the military.

Location: Eastern Asia, northern half of the Korean Peninsula bordering the Korea Bay and the Sea of Japan, between China and South Korea.

Ethnic groups: racially homogeneous; there is a small Chinese community and a few ethnic Japanese

Religions: Buddhism and Confucianism, some Christianity and syncretic Chondogyo
note: autonomous religious activities now almost nonexistent; government-sponsored religious groups exist to provide illusion of religious freedom.

This hardly makes it an atheist country anymore than we are an atheist one, or Christian one.

[stromboli]

Forcing the state as the sole focus for the populace is not much different than religion. A secular nation such as the Scandinavian countries doesn't hold to any religious ideology, which is why there is no state religion; but likewise there is no focus on the state itself. Radical communist states like Bulgaria or Romania at their worst were  forcing their state-centric belief on the masses the point that every effort was made to work for the state; once again, not that different from a religion.

Atheism is not an ideology, and by itself not a focus for belief or forced loyalty.

[Hydra009]

Though that is the popular belief, as told in the media, it is not entirely true.

North Koreans do indeed worship their leader, but not as a divine being in the religious sense.
Kim-il-Sung, who formed North Korea, is worshipped like a deity, but it is just that: LIKE a deity!

When North Koreans say their leader "still lives" they are refering to the common memory of his "glorious" work.

Btw, thread title is hella misleading.  I expected some sort of fact-based comparison between theocracies (Iran and the Vatican) versus "atheist countries" (it's unclear how exactly those are defined and therefore what countries would be representative of that category).  I am disappoint.